Rounder has a gentle, agreeable, and light-hearted disposition. She gave birth to her first calf at twelve years of age in 2017. As a young mother, Rounder was often seen with Accra and her young calf mates during the calves’ lively play sessions. Although she refrained from frolicking, Rounder was very much in the mix as a fun-loving, passive guardian.

She has consistently been at ease with us as researchers. One day during our 2019 field session when the unit was traveling, she purposely stopped with the three calves to wait for us to enter the water. They logged in place for several minutes to scrutinize us before she and the calves resumed their journey. We saw her breach on several different days that year. In 2021 she was frequently seen swimming in tandem with Accra, who is now a juvenile.

Rounder’s gentle nature was vividly illustrated when I was once documenting Unit A as they slept. The sleeping whales were disrupted by the sudden, noisy intrusion of a group of photographers who pushed into me and crowded the whales. Startled, the whales abruptly surfaced to swim away. Although I was in Rounder’s direct path, pinned in place and unable to move out of her way, she calmly looked me in the eye, consciously adjusted her body, and flattened her pectoral fin to her side to avoid bumping and harming me.

While Rounder has consistently been patient with humans who have entered her domain, we observed her become visibly agitated during our 2022 field session. All members of Unit A1 had settled into vertical sleeping positions 15 – 20 ft below us and were resting soundly as we floated quietly at the surface. Ten minutes into the encounter, a group of free divers from a tour boat began diving down among the sleeping whales which prompted Rounder to surface and commence tail lobbing. Her family group swiftly woke up, ascended, and swam away.